How to Help Your Personal Injury Case
To help with our two goals of: 1. you healing, and 2. us maximizing your case value, please carefully review the below recommendations and follow any that are applicable to you.
Go to the doctor. 🏥
Regular and consistent medical appointments not only help injuries heal, they also provide legal evidence of “pain and suffering”. This can help increase the value of your case.
Missed appointments, stopping treatment early, not starting treatment soon enough, and gaps in medical treatment tend to lower the value of your case.
We recommend that you regularly and consistently see one or more medical professionals regarding each of the injuries you sustained in the accident until you are healed or are released by your medical providers.
Take lots of Photos. 📸
Photographs provide some of the best evidence for your case. Please take and text (385-444-7545) or email (in**@************ry.com) to our firm any and all relevant photographs.
Examples of relevant photographs include photos of visual evidence of your injuries (for example braces, wraps, ice packs, medication, bruises, scars, etc.), photos of to any vehicles involved, and photos of anything that shows how the injury has affected your life (for example a photo of your family or friends participating in an activity that you cannot join due to your injuries).
Journal. 📓
The accident and the injuries you sustained may have affected your life in significant ways. We have found that insurance adjusters like to hear from our clients and their family members directly.
We recommend that you begin to prepare a written statement describing how the accident has impacted your life. Including stories in your statement is very valuable. You may write it and email it to us.
Get proof of income loss. 🗒️
If you have missed or will miss work, and therefore will lose income due to your injuries or medical appointments, we can present that loss as part of your claim.
To present a strong wage loss claim, we will need at least two things from you: 1. A writing from a doctor excusing you from work for the specified time frame; and 2. Proof of the amount of money you lost, usually established by pay history before the accident compared to pay after the accident.
Stay off social media. 📱
Insurance adjusters are looking for ways to lower the value of your claim. Adjusters will try to view your social media posts to find evidence inconsistent with the injuries we are claiming.
For example, if you claim you cannot work because it hurts to lift things, and you have a picture holding your child, the adjuster will use that against you.
Be aware that some courts allow the discovery of social media accounts, even when they are set to private. So, it may be better to simply not post anything on social media until your case is resolved.
Disclose prior injuries. 🤕
Sometimes our clients have injuries or conditions that existed prior to the accident. Sometimes they sustain an injury after the accident.
The insurance company will find out about these “unrelated” conditions and, if they are similar to your injuries from the accident, will try to use them to lower the value of your case. We need to be prepared to argue against the insurance company. Please tell us in writing or over the phone about any prior or subsequent injuries you may have.